Violence... The story so far

Don't count on it.

On Oct 17 2008, during an employees-only conference call, a JP Morgan Chase fielded a question: “Chase recently received $25 billion in federal funding. What effect will that have on the business side and will it change our strategic lending policy?”

His reply:

“Twenty-five billion dollars is obviously going to help the folks who are struggling more than Chase,” he began. “What we do think it will help us do is perhaps be a little bit more active on the acquisition side or opportunistic side for some banks who are still struggling. And I would not assume that we are done on the acquisition side just because of the Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns mergers. I think there are going to be some great opportunities for us to grow in this environment, and I think we have an opportunity to use that $25 billion in that way and obviously depending on whether recession turns into depression or what happens in the future, you know, we have that as a backstop.”